Jack the Ripper, a Real-Life Exorcism, and a Bit of Ghost Hunting

A special delivery from the Vanity Fair Archive View in your browser | Update your preferences Here, five spooky tales from the Vanity Fair Archive. Battling the Devil When he made his 1973 classic, The Exorcist, William Friedkin had never seen an exorcism, and for decades he wondered how close his film had come to reality. In 2016, in Rome, the director was allowed to film as Father Amorth—a Vatican legend who would die just four months later—fought to expel Satan from an Italian woman. It began a chilling investigation into the phenomenon of possession. R E A D  M O R E » Ghost Hunting A spirited tale by Ann Arensberg: The lights are out, but everybody's home. R E A D  M O R E » The Face of Jack the Ripper For more than a century after Jack the Ripper became one of history's most feared and famous murderers, his identity remained a mystery. Then a best-selling American crime novelist met a leading British authority on the Ripper. In an excerpt from the resulting book, Patricia Cornwell revealed how she and other investigators used state-of-the-art forensic science, including DNA tests, to make the case that the serial killer who terrorized Victorian England was the handsome, gifted young artist named Walter Sickert. R E A D  M O R E » The Making of Ghostbusters From a potential lead who died of a drug overdose to a marshmallow-man suit that went up in flames, Ghostbusters looked like anything but a slam dunk when Columbia Pictures made it. Lesley M.M. Blume revealed how Dan Aykroyd's big idea led to an all-time comedy classic. R E A D  M O R E » The Roots of Evil When serial killer Ted Bundy went to the electric chair after 10 years of scrutiny on death row—and countless reports, television programs, and books—he was still a chilling enigma. Then, in 1989, Myra MacPherson obtained the exclusive help of psychiatrist Dr. Dorothy Lewis, who was with Bundy for his last hours, and reconstructed the formative roots of a serial killer. What she found was a reality very different from his mother's picture of a normal childhood and adolescence—and Bundy's own claim that pornography was to blame. R E A D  M O R E » Get on the list Subscribe to our Hollywood newsletter for your essential industry and awards-season news, every day. Sign Up Now This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our Privacy Policy Unsubscribe Copyright © Condé Nast 2022. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.